Managing Remote -Delighting Real

Future of work received a massive boost during and post Covid places of work. What was until then a best in case, work from home/remote work percentile of 30% (WEF 2018 Future of work report), changed dramatically to 100% mandated until safety returned to populations across the globe.

The return to the normal scenario of pre-Covid norms has been totally disrupted. Leading in the current situation is a change that leadership needs to imbibe. The teams have been fully acclimatized to the new ways of remote work with full assistance from technology. Technology tends to level information asymmetry and not the understanding asymmetry.

But is this also true wrt efficiencies of Leaders managing a remote workplace? let us explore further to answer this and find out what would work best in this age of remote work. How, leaders manage remote teams changed? Is change necessary?  

 Remote working opened to possibilities of effective use of talent without having to be at the workplace. Instead, homes became the new workplaces and leaders had to align fully to this setting and understand and initiate managing teams more effectively. Employees though have been at the forefront of this forced change but have managed well to keep businesses running optimally except for few industries dependent on travel commutes of large populations.

Nexval, a Top 100 organization with Great People Managers successively for two years in a row was well placed to chart the new course and effectively so. Some immediate strategies that worked for us during and post-transition was to

1.     Managers supported well on work from home and extended it to be more sensitive towards health and well-being.

2.     Quality of leadership support was more aligned and was sensitive towards the need of the employee/s supporting us fully.

3.     Managers/Leader also were able to double up by rolling their sleeves to deliver and keep the business running seamlessly.

4.     Leader ensured to allay fears on Job security with ringing in growth in a difficult year.

5.     Quality of line management stood up to this challenge well and ensure continuity of business.

6.     The most organic hierarchy is one with positivity and knowledge differential.

What made these possible, given the fact that the pre-pandemic scenarios were entirely different. How did our leaders enable such huge change to also bring in growth while not only allaying fears on health and well-being? A Harvard study published recently added to the challenges that leaders faced during these difficult times.

A large population of the workforce relented on trust issues that propped up post the transition. Workers according to this study Harvard Study felt untrusted and micromanaged throughout this period and has only evolved to frustrate further. The cost of this alone to organizations and economies, in general, are immense. There is an imminent need to have managers/leaders trained/skilled in delegating better and further empowering teams to create better, motivate higher and work in a new paradigm environment for scale and efficiency. This needs to be initiated right from the top to navigate through change and managing talent better. The changing scenario is one where there was no training to move into an environment except for few earlier ways of managing remotely with global enterprises.

 Some lessons learnt from these tough times are in essence crafted below to ensure we share those with the wider world.

How did we navigate these minefields to still clock growth?

The answer lies in how we manage and delight remotely to ensure our people, customers, and the organization win.

A low skilled environment needs that positive infusion of learning and learning defined growth to be effective. This is ensured by aligning the structure and redesigning the existing people delivery and administrative mechanisms to suit the current realities. The structure that existed was designed purely to cater to a previous mode of working. The current structure should be based more on trust and effective remote communication channels. This is gained by strengthening our existing buddy systems to deliver more and align the supervisory ratios to manage more efficiently with frequent communication protocols established and monitored. Tools that help us with these assists immensely in delivering that trust with a thrust to not only sustain businesses but also in gaining momentum in growth. Traditional structures revamped to teams with shared responsibilities.

A recent survey concluded that employees who feel their voice is heard at work are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work.

Source Credit: Survey results by SMARP

The trick is to turn the internal communication designed for frequent connection, to one that is more real-time ensuring a significant shift in our communication approach and strategy.

An Adoption of a social media platform to transform efficiency and scale with oversight of organizational information security is a sure winner. This helps us gain scale and serenity in an uncertain environment.

A High touch campaign enabled by digital medium ensures confidence, sustainability, and continuance of work. Gives the much-needed incentive in making things seamless.

Formulation of an empowered structure to deal with exigencies cutting through bureaucracy/processes that were defined for a different set of rules.

Quick access to customers for managing their exceptions and additional support by employees is a welcome initiative in these times in cutting through time and ensuring efficiencies reach the endpoint in creating desired value.

Concluding, creative communication, administration and empowered technology enabling the last mile user/employee to make quick decisions help not only manage the VUCA(Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) environment better but also delight the stakeholders including society in ensuring continuity of jobs and driving growth.

The way to a performing team's heart is through the 3 C's of connect, communicate and convert.